PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – Pembroke Pines police released the name of a woman whose 17-month-old son died last week after she left the boy inside her car while she worked for more than eight hours.
Police said Emily Bird, 34, of Fort Lauderdale, told investigators that she thought she had dropped off her son, Eli Bird, at his day care, but instead the boy remained in the car's back seat with the windows closed.
When she left work, Bird discovered she had left her son and called for medical help, police said. Eli was rushed to a hospital, where he died of his injuries.
Outside the car, temperatures reached 95 degrees that day in Pembroke Pines. When temperatures outside range from 80 degrees to 100 degrees, the temperature inside a car parked in direct sunlight can quickly climb to between 130 to 172, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Police also released 911 calls for the incident and the police report, but the document was heavily redacted.
"The child is blue. The child is not breathing," one caller tells the 911 dispatcher.
No charges have been filed, but police said they are still investigating the incident.
According to a report by the Department of Children and Families, the family had been staying with friends while their house was being tented, and the boy's mother was under a lot of stress.
The mother told authorities that she took a different route to work Friday and "believed she dropped him off that morning." She said it was only after she learned her son never showed up for day care that she "began to realize what had occurred."
The family plans to hold a funeral for Eli on Friday at Joseph A. Scarano Stirling Memorial Chapel in Davie.